Thanks again to all who have read this story. And double thanks to those who have taken the time to review this story. Baxley--you're a lovely person, and very gracious with your words of encouragement! Pearl, I couldn't ask for a better pen-mate!

Chapter Five - Between Friends

Inside, Merry met the rest of Addie's children: Reginard, Donnabelle, and Primabelle.

Merry looked around the smial, but couldn't see any matronly lady moving about. "Where's your Mum?" He asked Everard.

Everard was giving Merry a walking stick to use while he was there visiting. "I've never had a mother."

Overhearing the conversation, Addie answered Merry, "She died years ago, and as your own Mum once told me about someone special to her, Niola 'will always live here'." He put his hand over his heart.

Merry looked at Everard, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Merry was able to relax during elevenses--he was relieved that no one asked him about his hands or eye. After the meal was done, Addie shooed the children outside; "Go on outside; the sun is peeking out from behind the clouds today--take advantage of it lest she decides to go indoors."

"Are you certain you heard what you heard?" Paladin leaned closer towards his friend with a look of genuine concern.

"I heard it, plain as day."

Paladin sighed. "I don't know, Addie." He slowly shook his head in disbelief. "Do you think it was the beer talking through him?"

"Ah, cousin! Ferumbras may have had a pint with me and Gillie, but his eyes were just as clear as mine....are now." He quickly added.

"I should've known this would happen." Paladin leaned back in his chair. "Seventy-six years old...I guess no lass is going to want him now anyway--all mothered up the way he is, too. And now he has designs on me and my son for Thain. I know Lalia will have something to say about that."

"She did." Addie replied, taking a draught of his beer, and sliding a mug on the table towards his cousin. "She said...something like, 'No farm boy is going to sit in the office of Thain'."

Paladin's eye grew wide. "She said that?"

"She also said that farmers don't have the 'necessary faculties capable of sustaining such laborious endeavors'." Addie smiled mischievously. "Big words, they were. I had to look them up!" He let out a laugh when he saw Paladin's jaw drop. Addie reached over with an upturned hand and shut it.

"Not only did she call me a farm boy, she called me a stupid farm boy." Paladin said. "All because I chose to till the land for my living. What else did she expect me to do? I have to feed my family."

Addie patted his cousin's shoulder. "She expected you to reach into the Took horde and shove it under folk's noses--as the rest of us Tooks do."

"I can't do that, Addie, and neither do you."

"Shhh!" Addie mockingly put a finger to his lips. "If she found out I cooked part time down at the Oak Leaf, She'd have a fit!" He lifted his mug and said, "It's good for all the free beer I get!"

"Well that settles it." Paladin said. "When Ferumbras decides to summon me to his office...to have a talk with me, then all I can say, is be forewarned of my faculties and capabilities!" He sipped his beer. "Good heavens above, since when is lifting a pen and dipping it into the ink jar a 'laborious endeavor'? I'm not afraid of that big desk in his office...well, not much, anyway." His eyes grew far away at a distant memory. "I still can remember us being called in front of that desk when you and I got caught watching the lasses wading in the stream--wearing only their under garments and petticoats!"

"Ah, yes. My backside still remembers that as well," Addie nodded in thought, "but that wasn't what got us called to the desk, Paladin." Addie lit his pipe, and blew out the smoke. "If only you didn't come up with the idea to hide their dresses!"

"I think that was you, Addie. I was only ten, if you recall rightly."

"Oh. I suppose it was." Addie got up and began clearing the table. "Let's clear up a bit, then we can properly sit by the fire and recall exactly what we did in the Marish that got us, and Sara, in trouble with the Master."

The mention of Saradoc hit a sour note with Paladin and he made an odd face. Addie noticed his friend's demeanor had changed. "What's the matter?"

"You had to bring up Sara."

"And?"

"And he's not on my list of friends right now."

"You and he have had words?"

"Well, I guess you can say that, even though he and I haven't spoken since the burial of Saramac."

Addie stared at Paladin, "What has happened between you two?"

Paladin sighed. "One word: Merry."

"What does Merry have to do with you and Sara's difference?"

"Merry is the difference." Answered Paladin. "Sara is still so torn over Saramac that he has forgotten he has yet another son to raise."

"Are you certain? The lad seems fine to me." Both hobbits made their way over to the couch in front of the fireplace.

"It's all a cover up. A facade he puts on." Paladin sat down and told Addie what his sister wrote in a letter, and also what happened on the way to Great Smials earlier.

"I see." Addie nodded, and adjusted himself in his seat next to his friend. "And so Essie sends him to stay with you until she can smooth things over with her husband? How many times has this happened?"

Paladin fidgeted with the half empty mug in his hands. "About three or four times in a year. But, this is becoming a strain on her marriage--and on Merry. So when she asks me if he can come and visit for a while, I always answer yes."

"How does Tina feel about the extra responsibility?"

Now Paladin looked up, "Oh, we've discussed it many times, and we both feel very strongly about Merry; that he needs a stable home and to be surrounded by folks who love him."

"Doesn't the boy have cousins or friends at home that he plays with?"

"Perhaps one, or two. But he isn't very happy at home, and I believe it all stems from Sara."

Addie put his hand on his cousin's arm, "Do me one favor, please."

"What's that?"

"I know you, Paladin. Don't let Merry latch onto your heart. It will be bad for you and him in the end."

Paladin sipped his beer. Too late for that, he said to himself.